


Knowing Each Other Without Really Knowing Each Other

by FoxOnPie



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy of Errors, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting to Know Each Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25955068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxOnPie/pseuds/FoxOnPie
Summary: Luz Noceda, wanting to see how people would treat her if she wasn't a human, starts disguising herself as a normal witch and ends up befriending a nice, lonely girl named Amanda. Amity Blight, wanting to see how people would treat her if she wasn't a Blight, starts disguising herself as a normal witch and ends up befriending a goofy, lonely girl named Sombra. Good for them.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 14
Kudos: 102





	Knowing Each Other Without Really Knowing Each Other

Ten minutes of walking around Bonesborough and no one had said a word to her or even so much as looked at her. Good. Fifteen minutes of walking around Bonesborough and no one had said a word to her or even so much as looked at her. Great. Twenty minutes of walking around Bonesborough and no one had said a word to her or even so much as looked at her. At that point, Luz was starting to feel a little annoyed by the lack of attention, but it still meant that her disguise was working perfectly.

Luz had known that being the only human walking around in the Demon Realm would elicit a lot of reactions from people, but it wasn't until her disastrous first attempt at selling potions for Eda when it truly sunk in how negatively the natives might respond to the sight of a human. It wasn't as if that was something that would completely deter her, and she had no plans of simply putting a lid on her humanity, but Luz would be lying if she said she didn't want to know what it would be like to walk around town without getting a weird look or two.

That was why Luz came up with the brilliant plan of crafting a witch disguise for herself, a plan that was obviously working, going by the lack of attention she was drawing toward herself. To think that all she had to do was wrap some fake vampire ear moldings around her ears—Luz was quick to shut Eda down when she suggested using real vampire ears—and swap out her sweater for Eda's witch-like bathrobe to make herself look indistinguishable from the average witch; she also had a pair of sunglasses largely because she thought it would be cool to be the kind of person who wore sunglasses at night, and once she got the hang of not bumping into random people, it started to pay off.

_But this isn't really what I wanted, though_ , Luz thought. _I'm not getting hassled or stared at, but I'm not getting talked to, either. If all I wanted was to avoid being treated like a freak, I could have just stayed at the Owl House, but I want to have a real conversation with someone! Well, as real as a conversation built on lies can be, anyway. Which probably isn't very real at all, when you think about it. I mean, that's how lies work by design, so—No, Luz. Talk to someone now, question the morality of your actions later!_

With the decision to put off questioning the morality of lying firmly established, Luz continued her stroll through Bonesborough until the smell of exotic meats entered her nose and dragged her along to an establishment by the name of Grimgrub's Pub. Luz had read and played through enough fantasy stories to know that pubs were always full of people to talk to, and while that was usually for the sake of starting a quest or moving the story forward with conveniently timed dialogue, that didn't exclude it from being a place where she could have some casual fun amid some casual deception. Yes, Grimgrub's Pub would be the perfect place to get the most out of her disguise, Luz decided, and as such, her next move was to make a dramatic entrance by kicking the door open, for that was the kind of thing that Witch Luz would do.

Luz tripped over herself almost immediately, resulting in a large number of patrons—some normal-looking, most monstrous—to start staring at her. Luz knew that she needed to do what she could to save her new persona's dignity, so she got back up and started to play it cool the best that she could.

"Hello there, fellow witches, witch fellas. Boy, I sure do love being a witch who does all sorts of witch things like flying around and turning people into frogs and getting burned at the stake for knowing what a prime number is! Being a witch sure is great, isn't it?" Suffice to say that her best was hardly worth anything; the forced bit of laughter injected at the end of it certainly didn't do her any favors. In spite of that, luck appeared to be on Luz's side, as one of the patrons eventually said, "I do like prime numbers, so that checks out," and everyone went back to whatever it was that they were doing.

"Ha. Nailed it." With that taken care of, it was time to keep going with her innocent deception. Just walking up to someone at a table and trying to strike a conversation there would probably be a bit too intrusive, but in situations such as these, the surly, yet humble barkeep often made good company, so she went to the bar to establish said company with the barkeep.

The barkeep turned out to be a man with a chainsaw sticking out of his metallic head. He opened his mouth when Luz approached him, but all that came out was the whirring of the previously mentioned chainsaw.

"Oh, wow, what a lovely head you're sporting there, is something a witch like me would say. So, um, do you get that from your parents?" The chainsaw man let out more whirs as he slammed a hand against the bar. "What, um, fun we're having here, yes. So, I'm a witch in a witch-based establishment, what should I be eating?" The chainsaw man let out more whirs as he slammed a hand against the bar. "Do you think you could repeat that? Pretty please?" The chainsaw man let out more whirs as he slammed a hand against the bar. Then he slammed another hand down.

The entire endeavor was starting to seem like a mistake. Nothing was going how she thought it would, and now she was on the verge of getting chopped up by some crazy demon barkeep. For the sake of everyone, most notably her, it would probably be best for her to just run back to the Owl House and pretend that Witch Luz never got past the development stage.

"She'll have the same thing as me, but this is clearly her first time here, so go a little easy on the sugar in her drink, okay?" The barkeep nodded his head and walked off. All of a sudden, Luz was saved from impending doom, and the savior the universe threw in her path and into the seat at the bar next to her was a brown-haired girl with a forehead full of wavy bangs and green eyes that reminded her of the Good Witch Azura's. As silly a reason as it might have been, that alone was enough to make Luz trust her.

"Sorry if I was making assumptions just now, it's just that anyone who comes here at night usually knows how to understand his accent, and since you were struggling so much, I just figured this was your first time, and I'm guessing by the look on your face that I'm right. Right?" the girl asked. All Luz could do was nod. "Okay, good. Don't let his appearance freak you out too much. He's actually a really good guy once you get to know him."

"Really? I mean, we don't have anyone who looks like that and is still a nice guy where I come from, but I guess looks _can_ be deceiving." Luz was speaking from personal experience.

"Yeah, they really can. I'm Amanda, by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm—" Luz stopped herself from saying another word. Nothing else could be said to Amanda, after all; not when she had only just now realized a major flaw in her plan.

_I never picked a fake name for myself!_ Luz screamed in her head. _How could I let myself go through with this without even doing_ that _? Fake names are secret disguises, 101! Okay, okay, no need to panic anymore than what you're already doing. You just gotta come up with something. Right now. On the spot. While this super nice girl is staring at you with her pretty, Azura-like eyes because it feels like it's been a million years since you last said something and if you don't say something soon, you'll lose out on your chance of making a new friend here, even if it's based on a lie, so you really need to just—_

"Hey, are you—"

"Sombra!" was what Luz cut Amanda off with. "My name is, um, Sombra. Yep. That is the name of the witch named Sombra. Who is me. Because I am a witch. A witch named Sombra. Because that's my name. Sombra." Amanda let out a laugh, and Luz did her best to not think about how cute it was.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Miss 'Witch Named Sombra'." Luz didn't know how or why that worked, but she wasn't going to complain about it. Before she had the chance to test her luck once more, the chainsaw man returned and handed them each a glowing fork and a non-glowing spoon before placing in front of each of them a pink-colored drink and a plate that had a large egg surrounded by a variety of sides and seasonings.

"So is this some kind of hardboiled egg, or—" The egg broke open and revealed a snake-like creature with a large horn that immediately tried to bite and stab her. On instinct, and while screaming in her head, Luz jammed her fork into the snake's head. It fell down defeated, upon which it transformed into some sort of soup with large chunks of meat floating around in it. Looking over to the left, Amanda went through the same process, but with a level of calm and grace that outshined Luz's in every regard. "So was this supposed to happen?"

"It was, and it's actually really good. Just try it." Amanda seemed to be enjoying her soup of melted snake corpse, so there was no reason why Luz—or, rather, Sombra—couldn't do the same, so she took in a cautious spoonful with only a small bit of snake meat.

"This is the best thing I've ever eaten," was what Luz said while rapidly taking in more and more of the soup.

"Yes! I'm so happy you like it!" Amanda was smiling brightly, but she turned it down a little when Luz started looking at her. "I mean, it's just that this is the best thing on the menu, but no one else ever eats it, so, yeah, I'm glad you like it and don't think it's disgusting, Sombra."

"Hey, the only thing disgusting about this is what you have to do to eat it. This sure is a crazy place."

"I guess they don't have food like this in your old home."

"My old home?" Luz took in a gulp both to swallow the soup and in response to a new wave of nervousness.

"Well, it's pretty clear that you're not from the Boiling Isles. We don't get a lot of outsiders, so that's pretty cool. Where are you from, anyway?"

"Good question. A question I will answer very soon, and the answer is different from the answer you would give if you were asked the question because while you come from a society built on a giant, _I_ come from a society built on a… giant." That was the wrong word to start with, and when Luz looked around for inspiration, all she could stare at was the egg on her plate. "Egg!"

"What?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, I come from a society built on a giant egg. A giant, um, phoenix egg that's been infertile for thousands of years!" Amanda just stared at Luz without saying a word, because of course, she did. She had to have seen through such an obvious lie, because who else but a witch would know the difference between what was real and what was utter nonsense?

"Oh, you're from the Republic of Phoenixton?" Luz, not wanting to waste her hot streak, nodded her head. "Oh, I've always wanted to go there; with all the forests and animals and consistently low homicide rates, I hear it's one of the nicest places to live in the entire Demon Realm."

"If you're saying it, then it must be true."

"And I guess that's why you're wearing those sunglasses, since people in Phoenixton always have to shield their eyes because of how close the egg is to the sun."

"Yes! That's the reason for the sunglasses, and nothing else." It was possible that Luz was a better witch than she gave herself credit for. She took a drink from her glass to congratulate herself, but almost spat it out from how sweet it was. She didn't even want to think about how sweet Amanda's version of the drink had to be, by comparison.

"What brings a girl from Phoenixton to the Boiling Isles, anyway?"

"I'm here to learn magic." Luz finally had an opportunity to say things that wouldn't be a complete lie; it was best to capitalize on it. "I'm not really good at it, and no one in my hometown ever wants to help me; they just tell me to stop causing problems and try something else. I came here because I heard that witches in the Boiling Isles were better than witches in Phoenixton?" Amanda's smile didn't falter, so it seemed like there was nothing wrong with that statement. "Yeah, they're way better here, so I came here to find a tutor, and while it's not going that great right now, I just started, so I'm sure I'll start making progress soon."

"Is going out to pubs part of your training, then?"

"It'd be great if it was, Amanda, but no," Luz said. "This is more me just wanting to go out and try to talk to people without worrying about them treating me differently—for how bad I am at magic, I mean."

"Well, I'm still here, so I guess it's working." Amanda was smiling at her again. It was bad for her health, so she did her best to turn away without looking weird.

"Yeah, I guess it is, right? But still, I wanted to spend the night talking with lots of people, but you're the only one I managed to talk to, and only because you initiated it. Don't think I can really call this a roaring success."

"If you just got here, then you're doing better than me," Amanda said, taking a drink from her glass. "I've been coming here for a month, you know, and this is the first time I've managed to talk to anybody here."

"Wait, really?"

"Yep. I won't get into it, but I never really have a good time at school. Or home. Or anywhere with people who know who I am, really. I started coming here so I could try and be with people who won't treat me differently because of who I am, but I've always been too scared to talk to anyone, so I just eat dinner alone in the corner, and it's like—"

"If you're not going to talk to anyone, then you might as well have just stayed home?" Amanda nodded her head. "So what changed your mind, then?"

"You did. When I saw how much you were floundering and how badly you needed someone to lend you a hand, I got to thinking that if I couldn't even talk to someone who needed it as desperately as you, then I'd never be able to talk to anyone at all. So, you know, thanks for helping me get over that hump." Amanda was blushing. It was almost too much for Luz to handle.

"Do you wanna, maybe, do this again sometime?" Luz asked. "I think we're both getting a lot out of just talking to each other, so if we keep meeting up like this, maybe it'll help us be able to deal with what we've got going on during the daytime, right?"

"Yeah, let's do that! I mean, if it's really okay with you, obviously. The last thing I want to do is bother you, so—"

"No, you're not! This is exactly what I need, I guarantee it! What about you?" Luz had practically jumped in front of Amanda, but the prospect of solidifying a new friendship was too exciting for her to care. Amanda blinked a few times before finishing her drink and saying to Luz, "Okay," and Luz couldn't have been happier.

The two of them spent the rest of the evening talking about random things—Luz did a better job of faking her way through that than she thought she would—and polishing off the rest of their food—Luz, having forgotten to bring any money with her, breathed a sigh of relief when Amanda paid for both of them—before leaving the pub and agreeing to get together at the same time the following night. Luz ran back to the Owl House and started talking everyone's ear off about the fun time she had with Amanda, only stopping when it became clear that everyone except Hooty had lost interest. For a minute, Luz thought that she would be too happy to fall asleep, but then she remembered that it wasn't Luz Noceda who had made a new friend, but Sombra, the fake witch who hailed from a giant egg that apparently existed, and that balanced out her mood enough to allow her to fall asleep.

She'd figure out how to deal with it later, and with any luck, Amanda would like the real her as much as the fake her.

* * *

For the entirety of her walk back home, Amanda couldn't stop herself from smiling. She had long since given up on the idea of her plan of getting away from her life actually bearing any fruit, but out of nowhere, the fruit showed itself in the form of a weird out of towner wearing a bathrobe, of all things. It took everything she had to ignore all of her idiotic behavior for the sake of having a conversation, but once she did, she saw that Sombra more than made up for it in other ways.

Getting along with people was nice, and the best part was that she got to do it again the following night, maybe even the night following that one. She had more or less forgotten what it was like to do that, but if the way she was feeling about it was right, she didn't want it to stop, and it would be great if Sombra felt the same way.

"Oh, right." As for things that didn't feel great, Amanda had gotten too close to her home to leave herself as she was. With a heavy sigh, she put her earrings back in her ears, pulled her bangs out of her face to remake the ponytail she always wore, and dispelled the illusion spell she had cast on herself to bring her hair and eyes back to their original colors of green and brown.

With all of that done, she was back to being Amity Blight, the kind of girl who couldn't afford to hang out in Grimgrub's Pub and be nice to anyone who didn't meet her family's standards, especially not kindhearted strangers who seemed just as lonely as she was. The kind of girl who would always turn her nose up at someone like Sombra. The kind of girl who was the exact opposite of the one who just spent her evening working up the courage to make a new friend.

She'd figure out how to deal with it later, and with some sort of miracle, Sombra would grow to like the real her as much as the fake her.


End file.
